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French Mashed Potato Cake Recipe

Now don’t you be put off by the word “French”, for this buttery, creamy, Easy Elegant French Mashed Potato side dish isn’t difficult at all. It will give your plated meal a delicious elegance that a glob of mashed potatoes just “cain’t” (ahem, excuse me…) cannot. It is classically known as Pommes de Terre Byron.

It will just melt in your mouth with all of its tender cheesy, buttery rich goodness.

This is a traditional, but very easy side dish, where the potatoes are baked, mashed, formed into little tender “cakes”, fried to a golden brown, then filled with crème fraiche and sprinkled with Gruyere and broiled quickly to melt the cheese.

So if you want to impress your guests when they ask about this yummy potato dish, you can casually tell them it is “pohm’ dee tear (rhymes with “dare”) bah’-ron”, a French! potato dish. They may think you spent hours preparing it (but hee hee, you didn’t!). And if you don’t care about impressing them, when they ask you about this dish, you can tell them it is a fancy fried potato pancake. But I would go for the Big Ta Da Impression, giving it all I had to say it with a French accent. Just for fun.

This recipe was made famous by Julia Child, and highlighted in the movie, “Julia & Julia”, portrayed so well by Meryl Streep. Julia Child was invited to have her own TV series in the 60’s, following the publishing of her first cookbook, “Mastering The Art of French Cooking”, as she was promoting it. There were so many positive comments from her appearance, that the station offered her a TV series, “The French Chef”, which later got syndicated by 96 different TV stations! Later, she continued to make television appearances in the 70’s and 80’s, as well as writing many more cookbooks, as late as 1999. She passed away in 2004.

She always insisted the shows be aired as if they were shot live, with any and all mistakes made, to be included. In one famous TV scene (that really happened), involving this recipe, she tried to flip the Byron “cake” in its frying pan, and a piece of it landed on the stovetop. She very coolly adlibbed, “You can always pick it up,” as she pushed the pieces together. “You’re alone in the kitchen—who is going to see?” I first saw her on the PBS television station, and I miss her. Ah, the unforgettable Julia Child.

Ingredients for French Potato “Cakes”

I would think that Julia would recommend that before you begin a recipe, that you would have Mise en Place, French for having all of your ingredients set out on your cooking counter, ready to use. That way you don’t forget to add anything to your recipe.

If you looked at the recipe below, and were wondering exactly what the “potato log” and the “disks” looked like, this picture will help. And you can’t imagine how soft and pillowy that log is!

This picture gives you a good idea of how golden brown these “cakes” should be. And I can’t stress enough, how careful you need to be in placing them in the skillet to brown, and in turning them over—where it is best to use two spatulas, one on each side of the “cake”. Then you will be just fine!

How to make Elegant French Mashed Potato Cake

Ingredients

4-6 large potatoes, scrubbed (1½ lb. each) depending on later use, see Note.

4 to 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (See Notes below.)

1 egg yolk per potato used

1 tablespoon Kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

½ cup Gruyere cheese, grated

¼ cup Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan cheese)

2 tablespoons chives, finely chopped (optional, but recommended)

3 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 to 6 tablespoons creme fraiche

4 to 6 tablespoons Gruyere cheese, grated

Garnish: 3 tablespoons chives or parsley, chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Pierce the potatoes a couple of times.

Put them on a baking sheet, and bake them in the oven for 40 minutes or until tender.

Remove from oven to cool enough to handle, but use while still warm.

Cut in half from pole to pole. Scoop out the flesh into a bowl, and if desired, leave ¼ inch rim of potato so you can use these potato skins for Loaded Potato Skins later. See Note.

Mash the potatoes with 1 Tbsp. room temp butter and 1 egg yolk per potato; season with salt and pepper and ½ cup Gruyere cheese and ¼ cup Parmesan.

Mound smoothly together and cover with plastic wrap, and put into refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Remove from bowl, and place onto a floured surface, and using floured hands, roll into a log, slice into disks 1½ inch thick. (You may have more than 4 disks, depending on the size and number of potatoes used.)

Using your hands, quickly shape into smooth disks that are flat on 2 sides, and rounded into disks. Again 1½ inch to 1¾ inches thick.

Hi, I am Karen. I am a food blogger and live in Texas, USA. I just love cooking for my family and my friends. I upload recipe articles from time to time to this online food blog. Tell me what you think.

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Hi, I'm Lee-Ann. Thanks for visiting my food blog. I am a foodie, traveler and a cat lover. (not necessarily in that that order). After reading food blog after food blog, after food blog - I thought - You know what I need it a food blog of my own. Why not - I can cook and I can bake. Learn More